Lexington, April 30—Only a defective cartridge apparently prevented A.A. Neely of Greensboro from shooting I. W. Vestal, of the same city, when Vestal and Neely’s wife were found in a local motel at 6 o’clock this morning. A local police officer accompanied Neely to the room where a couple registered as “W. J. Walker and wife” were suspected to be the two sought, but the officer states that Neely was calm and had given positive assurance he would create no disturbance. When the door was opened by Vestal, Neely snaped an automatic pistol close in his face and was pulling the trigger a second time when the officer grabbed the weapon and disarmed the angered husband. One of the cartridges showed where the pistol plunger had made a dent.
Vestal was sentenced to six months on the county roads in recorder’s court later in the morning, and the woman to two months in jail. Both appealed. Vestal’s bond being listed at $1,000 and later reduced to $750 and that of the woman at $300.
Neely was called out in court on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon and assault, but did not answer to his name. He did not appear against the defendants who pleaded guilty.
Vestal took the stand in his own behalf and testified that he had accompanied Mrs. Neely to a number of dances during the past year, all with the knowledge of her husband. He declared that when he sought to end their growing friendship, Neely came to him and insisted that he return and cause the woman’s tears to cease. He did not know when the woman left Greensboro yesterday, he said, but she telephoned him from High Point that she was ill and he went there and drove her and her five-year-old son here, arriving shortly after midnight. Counsel for the accused pair showed a railroad ticket to Marion with stopover on account of illness marked by the conductor.
From page 4 of the Concord Times, Monday, May 3, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn91068271/1926-05-03/ed-1/seq-4/
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